Going Social …

First – I’m going social. Welcome to my friends and contacts from Facebook and LinkedIn. I’ve connected this blog to my pages on these sites so I can reach more people. Hopefully I can help you with your career transitions. Feel free to like or share or what-have-you. Maybe someday I’ll have to learn to tweet (or not). Please follow along at www.im-fired.com.

Second – You need to go social too. When I wrote the first draft of I’m Fired?!? my concept was to write a book and include a CD-Rom with job search aids and support materials. At that time AOL was just starting and the only way to access the internet was through a dial-up connection. Some of you reading this post probably have no idea what I’m talking about. Those of you doing the math are realizing (the truth) that it’s taken almost 15 years to get this book from draft to done (and we’re not quite there yet).

Anyway – social media was nowhere on the horizon. Now there is LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, Instagram and sites I’ve never heard of. The world is more connected than ever before.

So the question is, should you talk about being unemployed on social media? The answer is an emphatic yes!

Networking is about telling your story to anyone and everyone. I hear people say, “I don’t need to tell so-and-so because they won’t know anyone who is going to hire me.” That is completely wrong. If your goal of networking is that everyone you meet will get you a job offer, then you will be severely disappointed. Networking is about connecting and building relationships. Everyone you meet knows someone that you don’t. If they introduce you then now you know one more person. As you build that network it’s like a spider building a web and eventually a nice tasty job opening will get caught in that web.

Putting your story on social media can allow you to reach more people faster than any other method. On the dark side, putting your mistakes, or your sloppy resume or your bad attitude on social media can blow a hole in your network just as fast. If one day you post on Facebook about your search and this great person that you met, and then the next day you whine about not getting an interview at some company, then you’ve undone the good work you did the day before.

Use social media, keep it professional and upbeat, encourage other job seekers, and avoid photos of you holding a red cup J. Build a network that is strong, and electrified.